Thug brutally beat girlfriend while on bail

A man will serve an extra 32 months in prison for viciously beating his girlfriend while on bail for a previous attack on her.

Terence Russell (41) slapped and punched Elizabeth Gaffney in a lengthy assault. He also bit her on the nose, stabbed her with a corkscrew and pinched her breasts.

Ms Gaffney has since been forced to move home because Russell knows where she lives. In a victim impact report, she called Russell a vindictive man "who has done terrible things".

Russell is currently serving a three-year sentence for another attack on Ms Gaffney. In that assault, Russell bit her on the face, neck and arm and left her in an extremely distressed state.

He is also serving another concurrent three-year term for assaulting two gardai who came to arrest him for the attack.

Yesterday, Judge Martin Nolan said Ms Gaffney was "beaten, terrified and humiliated during the second assault and that she no doubt believed she was going to be killed".

The judge imposed a 32-month sentence, which will begin when Russell is released from his current term this December.

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Russell, of Rafters Road, Drimnagh, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to assault causing harm at his home on September 5, 2012. He has 34 previous convictions.

Gda Michael Muldoon told the court that the couple were drinking together but the mood soured. Russell kicked Ms Gaffney in the shins and called her a bitch.

He then smashed her phone and began to punch and kick her extremely hard. He grabbed her hair and told her to look into his eyes as he stabbed her in the arm with a corkscrew.

Russell's mood then changed and he told her he loved her. He asked her not to leave because he believed she would go straight to gardai.

The next day Ms Gaffney reported the assault at the insistence of her son.

Ms Gaffney said in her victim impact report that she suffers nightmares and is still terrified of Russell. She said the father of her children won't let them stay at her house anymore because of her relationship with him.

The defence said Russell has problems with heroin and alcohol but that he is now taking education courses in prison.